How to Migrate a WordPress Site to a New Server

How to Migrate WordPress Sitesto a New Server

Whether you need to move your WordPress website to a new hosting company, a new server within the same hosting company or just to a new domain name or folder on the same server, you can’t do it by hand. Well, you could, but you wouldn’t want to.

Moving a WordPress site, whether to a new host or just a new folder on your current site is as big an ordeal either way. A lot of internal database changes have to be made to move your site – anywhere. The same number of changes have to be made to your database regardless of whether you’re moving it simply to a different folder or to an entirely different server. And unless you’re a real expert in the very tiniest of details of WordPress, you probably shouldn’t do it on your own.

If you move your WordPress site manually, you have to export your database, then re-import it to the new location. You have to update your config file and you have to download and re-upload all the actual files that make up your site (including all image and media files), and you then have to re-upload all that to the new location. Then, you have to go make a bunch of changes in the database to reflect the new location.

However, there’s a great plugin that I’ll show you in the video below that does all of this for you automatically. It packs up your whole site, including the database, files, etc. and puts them into a form where it can unpack and install them when you get to the new location. It also detects any changes from your old location. New IP address? No problem. New domain name? No problem. New folder location? No problem! It detects all those changes and makes all the appropriate edits in the database for you. It also makes any necessary changes to the config.php file.

My pleasure Rachel. And that goes for LazyLizard clients as well. We never want them to feel like they’re stuck here so we’re very open about letting everyone know how easy it is to move with your WordPress site.